{"id":2443786,"date":"2019-05-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-06T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=305299"},"modified":"2019-05-06T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-05-06T06:00:00","slug":"what-lurks-below-aspens-surface","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/what-lurks-below-aspens-surface\/","title":{"rendered":"What lurks below Aspen\u2019s surface?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Construction on the new City Offices near the Rio Grande park on Wednesday morning.<\/strong>
Anna Stonehouse\/The Aspen Times<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Whatever lurks beneath Aspen\u2019s streets is starting to surface, providing engineers and developers with an idea of what their predecessors\u2019 recycling methods were.<\/p>\n

They threw it in a hole and paved over it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they used what they had and didn\u2019t have the resources to get rid of it,\u201d said Aspen City Engineer Trish Aragon.<\/p>\n

As Aspen\u2019s aging infrastructure continues to be rebuilt, project managers are routinely finding things that have no earthly reason for being underneath the pavement.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really a hodgepodge and you never know,\u201d Aragon said. \u201cIt\u2019s random.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said when crews tore up Mill Street they found a shaft made of railroad ties; under Castle Creek Bridge there was a slab of concrete; and below South Aspen Street, contaminated materials from mining activity were strewn about.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery project encounters this sort of thing,\u201d Aragon said, adding that even boring down wouldn\u2019t give an indication of what\u2019s underneath Aspen\u2019s streets.<\/p>\n

Most recently, the surprise was discovered underneath Rio Grande Place.<\/p>\n

Aspen\u2019s elected officials had sticker shock in April when they were met with what could be as much as an $380,000 additional bill to fix an unforeseen problem under Rio Grande Place, the site of a massive utility project that is necessary for the municipal government\u2019s new office building.<\/p>\n

When crews dug up the road, engineers in the field noticed \u201cirregular soils\u201d underneath, like tree roots and branches, mine tailings, railroad ties and other materials that are not considered adequate road base, Jeff Pendarvis, the city\u2019s capital asset director, told council during a special meeting April 24.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it caught everybody off guard,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was unforeseen and unexpected because the roadway is in pretty good shape but now that it\u2019s been disturbed and we can see what\u2019s under there, the engineers in the room definitely feel that it\u2019s prudent to replace.\u201d<\/p>\n

That means filling 2 feet of new road base material from Mill Street to Founders Place on Rio Grande Place. That will require between 600 and 700 additional dump truck trips hauling in over 4,700 tons of material.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a lot of dirt,\u201d Pendarvis said.<\/p>\n

Rob Schober, the city\u2019s project manager, told council the bulk of the costs will be bringing in the material.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a lot,\u201d he told council.<\/p>\n

Excavation and utility work for the entire project will likely require over 2,000 truck trips, Schober said Friday.<\/p>\n

That does not include trucks related to construction<\/a> of the new building.<\/p>\n

Interim city manager Sara Ott said it\u2019s more cost effective to fix the road base while construction crews and their equipment are onsite for the other work being done.<\/p>\n

Councilman Ward Hauenstein repeatedly let Pendarvis and Ott, along with his colleagues at the council table, know his displeasure with the change order.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt disturbs me that we are being presented with a $379,000 no big deal contract,\u201d Hauenstein said, questioning some of the line items in the new contract with Shaw Construction. \u201cI\u2019m sorry, this just doesn\u2019t sit well with me looking at the detail.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that he\u2019s been driving that road for 40 years and it\u2019s not showing any signs of failure.<\/p>\n

Pendarvis pointed out that typically the road experiences light traffic uses but with heavy machinery coming in for the new 37,500-square-foot office building, problems could arise.<\/p>\n

Councilwoman Ann Mullins asked why soil testing wouldn\u2019t have indicated irregularities below the road.<\/p>\n

Pendarvis said soil testing didn\u2019t occur in the right of way but only on the site of the project, adding that as more excavating occurs around town, crews will likely find surprises.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel like this is a lesson learned on what we can expect on all subgrade work going forward,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

And while there was likely no way to know what was under Rio Grande Place, the city\u2019s asset department is taking responsibility for the additional costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody feels worse about this than we do. \u2026 We have egg on our face,\u201d Pendarvis said at the April 24 meeting. \u201cWe always go into a job trying to do the best project possible so there is some soul searching going on about, \u2018How did we miss this and how could we have done better?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Hauenstein also said during the meeting that he was disappointed that the owner\u2019s representative for the city office project, Jack Wheeler, wasn\u2019t present.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to express my displeasure of not having our owner\u2019s rep, who is getting a good chunk of change to advise us. \u2026 I think that is unacceptable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Wheeler, the former capital asset director for the city, stepped down last fall and started his own construction consultant company and signed a contract<\/a> with the government for over $455,000.<\/p>\n

Pendarvis said Wheeler had been in all of the conversations and was onsite the day prior to the council meeting.<\/p>\n

Ott and Pendarvis assured council that they would vet the itemized costs and try to bring the price tag down.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a great situation and I\u2019m not happy we are here either but it is what it is,\u201d Ott said.<\/p>\n

Council, with the absence of Bert Myrin, unanimously approved a resolution approving the funding for the additional work.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s upsetting but it\u2019s a pill I will swallow,\u201d Hauenstein said, adding he doesn\u2019t want to see a lot of change orders related to the city office project<\/a> coming to council, and wants it on time and budget.<\/p>\n

csackariason@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Construction on the new City Offices near the Rio Grande park on Wednesday morning.Anna Stonehouse\/The Aspen Times Whatever lurks beneath Aspen\u2019s streets is starting to surface, providing engineers and developers with an idea of what their predecessors\u2019 recycling methods were. They threw it in a hole and paved over it. \u201cI think they used what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2443786","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-17 18:22:29","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2443786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443786\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2443786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2443786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2443786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}